Bonnie – My Mum bought
me a Stratocaster copy when I was about 13
(black with a white scratch plate). The brand was “ZZ Top” which I
think was my main attraction to it, but I would’ve also have been going
through a classic Eric Clapton/Jimi Hendrix phase. It’s still somewhere
in my parents garage.

QRD – What’s the most
important part of your rig - guitar, amplifier,
or effects?

Bonnie – Effects.
Usually willing to go on tour without my guitar
&/or amp & pick up gear on the way if required. My
pedals will hopefully hold it all together & make me feel
comfortable should the quality of the guitar &/or amp end up
being questionable.

QRD – What’s your main
guitar & what are the features that make
it such?

Bonnie – Fender Jaguar.
Aesthetically I’ve always been attracted to the
shape of Jaguars & their excessive number of switches add an
extra quirk. Playability wise, the size of the neck feels just right to
me. They have a great resonance & combined with the single coil
pickups provide me with just the right amount of sustain &
sound variation that I’m looking for.

QRD – If you had a
signature guitar, what would it look like &
what would some of its features be?

Bonnie – Wouldn’t mind
something extravagant like this...the best of
both worlds. Might need a minion to hold it for me though:
Actually,
I don’t know...

QRD – If you had a signature pedal,
what would it be & what
would some of its features be?

Bonnie – Probably a
fuzz wah pedal. A Big Muff combined with a Jim
Dunlop Jimi Hendrix Wah Pedal. I have been wishing I could combine my
Jimi Hendrix & Vox Wah pedals recently. There’s something nice
about the sweep of the Vox in the mids that I wish the Jimi Hendrix had.

QRD – How many guitars
do you own?

Bonnie – 8. Mostly
Fenders.

QRD – How &
where do you store your guitars?

Bonnie – In their cases
at home. A couple are at my parents’ house.

QRD – What do you wish
guitar cases had that they usually don’t?

Bonnie – Not sure, but
the middle storage section on most of mine
usually seem to fall apart for some reason.

QRD – What features do
you look for when buying a guitar?

Bonnie – Affordability.
Most of my guitars are cheaper re-issues. Would
be nice to buy a gorgeous vintage Fender one day though.

QRD – How much do you
think a good guitar should cost?

Bonnie – Not certain
that these two things are necessarily always
related. However, some expensive guitars are definitely mind-blowingly
nice to play.

QRD – Do you upgrade
& customize your guitars or just stick
with what you get?

Bonnie – I’ve been
quite lazy when it comes to this. All of my guitars
are still pretty much how they came, except for a couple of bridges
& volume/tone pots.

QRD – How thoroughly do
you research or test a piece of equipment
before buying it?

Bonnie – I often do a
lot of research. Sometimes perhaps a little bit
too much research.

QRD – Do you change
your rig around often?

Bonnie – Maybe a few
pedals here & there. Mostly switch between
the modulation type of pedals, tremolos, phasers, etc. Sometimes I look
forward to borrowing someone’s amp at a show. Adds a little bit to the
excitement of improvising to not know exactly what variables you’ll be
put on the spot to work with.

QRD – Are you after one
particular guitar tone & locking into
it, or do you like to change your tone around a lot?

Bonnie – I suppose my
guitar tone is fairly locked in. However, I like
to think I am able to provide nice contrasts throughout a set,
particularly when looping sounds & providing contrast between
the different layers.

QRD – What are some
guitars, amps, & pedals you particularly
lust after?

QRD – What do you think
are some important features to be on a person’s
first guitar that aren’t always there?

Bonnie – A well set up
guitar with good action. Those poor little
fingers usually struggle holding those strings regardless of bad action.

QRD – What have been
the best & worst guitar related purchases
you’ve made?

Bonnie – I bought a
green Russian Big Muff for $50 many years ago. The
owner threw in an older Big Muff for free. Turned out to be a Civil War
Big Muff, my favourite pedal that I own.

QRD – What’s the first
thing you play when you pick up a guitar?

Bonnie – A series of
random barre chords resembling a retarded version
of AC/DC crossed with Black Sabbath. Most local guitar store clerks
probably think that I’m the girl who would love to learn how to play
guitar one day. They’re mostly right.

QRD – How old were you
when you started playing guitar?

Bonnie – About 12/13.

QRD – At what age do
you think you leveled up to your best guitar
playing?

Bonnie – Something
maybe changed in my style of playing when I was
about 30, probably due to just playing/touring a lot. More than
anything, I probably just became more comfortable with making mistakes.

QRD – Why do you think
a guitar fits you more so than other
instruments?

Bonnie – Not certain it
does fit me more so than other instruments.
Guess it’s a somewhat accessible instrument. I do also enjoy the fact
that the guitar can make a very wide range of sounds. It feels good to
hold & bend & throw about.

QRD – Do you think
guitar should be people’s first instrument as often
as it is?

Bonnie – Piano was my
first instrument & I found that to be a
very valuable first instrument. Playing piano you learn a lot about
rhythm, bass, & the melodic aspects of music. Playing piano you
get to do all these things at the same time & the skills you
learn are very much transferable & helpful in playing any other
instrument.

QRD – Do you see your
guitar as your ally or adversary in making music?

Bonnie – A bit of both.
I definitely love guitar but also enjoy to have
challenges with it. I guess it is why I enjoy improvising when I play
solo. There’s something about being thrown in the deep end with the
guitar, not knowing what’s going to happen & wrestling with the
sounds to make it into something.

QRD – Who are the
guitarists that most influenced your playing
& sound?

QRD – Do you think
people anthropomorphizing guitars is natural or
silly (e.g. naming guitars)?

Bonnie – I’ve never
been into anthropomorphizing anything. Guess it
works for some people.

QRD – What’s the most
physical damage you’ve done to a guitar &
how did you do it?

Bonnie – I have a
terrible habit of driving the necks of my guitars
into the ground, so most of the necks are in pretty bad shape, with a
few of the bodies cracked at the neck joint. Other than that, not too
much damage at all, surprisingly.

QRD – What do you do to
practice other than simply playing?

Bonnie – Occasionally
I’ll go through a phase of learning/practicing
some rudimentary exercises. Other than that, I just like to play
along/learn songs that I love. Either by playing along by ear or
following the tablature.

QRD – How many hours a
week do you play guitar & how many hours
would you like to?

Bonnie – Varies between
0 to several. Love the idea of playing
everyday, but it rarely seems to happen.

Bonnie –.010 - .046. I
like them light enough to easily bend, but the
bottom strings seems to be just heavy enough to still work well in drop
D tuning on the Jaguar & Jazzmaster.

QRD – How often do you
change strings?

Bonnie – As they break,
or on the rare occasion I stop to notice how
dirty &/or worn they are. Since I’ve been doing more home
recording I’ve become more aware of the impact of string condition on
the sound (particularly the sustain of the strings), so the strings are
getting changed a bit more regularly.

QRD – How often do you
break strings?

Bonnie – A few times a
year.

QRD – Which do you feel
is more proficient, your strumming hand or
fretting hand & how does that effect your style?

Bonnie – I feel like
they’re on pretty equal par. Both could do with a
bit of improvement really, but I enjoy pushing it to see what sort of
surprise might occur when I push things hard... usually a glorious mess.

QRD – Do you set-up
your guitar yourself or send it to a guitar tech
(or not set it up at all) & why?

Bonnie – Like string
changing, quite lazy when it comes to this stuff.
I pretty much use everything until it falls apart, then enlist the help
of a professional. Would really love to become more knowledgeable
& self-sufficient in this area.

QRD – What tunings do
you use & why?

Bonnie – Mostly
standard or Drop D tuning. I’ve been playing around
with some different tunings recently & enjoy the spontaneity of
not really knowing where notes/chords are at, but I’m not completely
taken with the idea... yet.

QRD – Do you prefer
tablature, sheet music, or some other notation
system for writing down your own ideas?

Bonnie – I usually use
some sort of shorthand tablature.

QRD – How high do you
hold your guitar when playing (strap length)?

Bonnie – On the lower
end of the spectrum I suppose.

QRD – What’s a bad
habit in your playing you wish you could break?

Bonnie – Not just
sticking to scales that I’m more familiar &
comfortable with.... I’d like to extend myself further.

QRD – Playing what
other instrument do you think can most help
someone’s guitar playing?

Bonnie – Probably
piano...as explained earlier.

QRD – What’s a type of
guitar playing you wish you could do that you
can’t?

Bonnie – I’d love to be
able to fingerpick well. Particularly the
Travis fingerpicking style used by Robert Johnson to John Fahey, Townes
Van Zandt, etc.

QRD – What’s a guitar
goal you’ve never accomplished?

Bonnie – Once I decided
I wanted to be able to play the album Appetite for Destruction
from start to finish. I have the tab book, just haven’t applied myself
to the task.

QRD – What’s the last
guitar trick you learned?

Bonnie – I had an
enjoyable day recently watching the “Guitar Moves”
series on YouTube. Picked up a couple of fun tricks in the St Vincent
& Josh Homme episodes.

Bonnie – Have been
enjoying practicing on an acoustic with a capo
recently. That’ll probably just stay in the lounge room though.

QRD – Did you ever take
guitar lessons & if so, what did you
learn from them?

Bonnie – I took a few
guitar lessons when I was in high school. I
learned a few blues scales & how to play “Under the Bridge”,
“Johnny B Goode”, & a few other tunes. My guitar teacher had an
amazing old Gibson (an ES-335, I think)...so I also learned to
appreciate beautiful old classic guitars, as compared to the crappy
metal guitars the boys in my music class boasted about.

QRD – How often do you
adjust your tone knob?

Bonnie – Quite
regularly. It’s an important mechanism I use to control
feedback.

QRD – What do you see
as the difference between lead guitar &
rhythm guitar players?

Bonnie – Strangely,
great rhythm guitarists have an astounding sense of
rhythm. I didn’t understand how special this was until I recently
played in a band with a fantastic rhythm guitarist (Bindi Masterson in
Dead River).

QRD – If a band has
good guitar work, can you ignore the rest of the
band not being good?

Bonnie – Certainly not.
Everyone needs to be able to back it up
& keep all the other parts together equally as well.

QRD – What famous
musician’s guitar would you like to own &
why?

Bonnie – I’ve always
been intrigued by character of Willie Nelson’s
Martin N-20 which he has named “Trigger”. Neil Young’s “Old Black” (a
1953 Gibson Les Paul Goldtop) is another amazing gem.